Slot Machines for Bars in Wrigleyville, Chicago

History

The ballpark went up in 1914 on a 7.7-acre site that had held four wood buildings of the Chicago Lutheran Theological Seminary, which moved to Maywood in 1910. Charles Weeghman, who founded a chain of lunchrooms and bought a Federal League team, leased the land in late 1913, and brothers Zachary T. and Charles G. Davis designed the steel-and-concrete park. The field was fitted to the street grid, and most of the three-story masonry buildings that face the bleachers across Sheffield and Waveland were built between 1895 and 1915. The Chicago Bears played at the park from 1921 until 1970. Coal silos stood in the triangle between Clark Street and the ballpark until 1961. In the 1970s, a neighborhood of families who worked in factories and warehouses began to draw young professionals, and counterculture shops catering to punk, metal and goth fans, along with comic book stores, got by on inexpensive rents. The real-estate frenzy of the early 1980s brought Wrigleyville into public view, and the lights that went up in 1988 brought night games.

The area today

El trains rumble past the right-field stands, and Addison, the Red Line stop, is an accessible station a short walk from the park. Wrigley Field, at 1060 W. Addison, is a Chicago Landmark that the City's report places in a low-scale residential and commercial district. Gallagher Way, the open-air plaza on Clark Street beside the ballpark, runs outdoor movie nights and holiday events through the year. The three-story buildings that face the bleachers on Sheffield and Waveland are often topped with roof decks.

Bars and restaurants here

The Twelve Bars of Xmas crawl, started in 1996, has filled Clark Street each December, and Block Club reported in November 2026 that its founder plans to lead the crawl for the last time that month. On Sheffield Avenue, Nisei Lounge has dart boards, a jukebox and Malört infusions, and it shows the game without wall-to-wall TVs, Block Club reported in September 2026.